Activities in Norway

Along the southern coast of Norway we have many outports, once very important for the traffic of sailing ships navigating the Skagerrak. Narestø, a short distance from Arendal, is one of them. In 1768 the local people came very close to a special sort of shipping, the slave trade!

Two enslaved Africans, and the crew of the Danish-Norwegian slave ship Fredensborg were living here for months after the frigate was wrecked. A long journey in the triangular trade ended on the east end of the island Tromøy.

The captain of the Fredensborg, Johan Frantzen Ferentz, and the supercargo, Christian Hoffmann, saved the logbooks when the ship was wrecked. These documents, together with many others that are now in the national archives in Denmark and Norway, make it possible for me to follow the course of the ship from day to day, both during the journey and after the wreck.